Card settlement methods by a credit card are widespread as a settlement method for shopping. According to such a settlement method by a credit card, there are advantages for customers that they can buy commodities without carrying cash. In addition, for affiliate stores, there are advantages that they can recommend the purchase of commodities to customers who are not carrying cash, and also promote the sales.
However, the settlement method by a credit card carries the risk that someone may steal the card and buy commodities illegally, or cash money from the account. In the event of such an illegal usage of the credit card, a large amount of money could be withdrawn from owner's account.
Prepaid cards are being used for paying rail fares and public telephone fares. Conventionally magnetic cards were used for prepaid cards, but prepaid magnetic cards are easily forged or altered, and illegal usage remains widespread.
Consequently, IC (Integrated Circuit) cards recently have been used as prepaid cards to pay railroad and telephone fare, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No. Hei 10-091823. Regarding IC cards, it is difficult to alter or forge the IC cards, and furthermore additional credit can be charged anytime. In addition, it has become possible to use prepaid IC cards at many affiliated stores, as well as to pay rail fares or telephone charges, as shown for example in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. Hei 10-188091.
However, to enable the use of prepaid IC cards, it is necessary to introduce a POS (Point Of Sales) system which can read IC cards at the affiliate stores. However, the introduction cost of such POS system that can read IC cards is high. Therefore, it is difficult for small-scale shops with little capital to become affiliated shops.
In addition, there are many ways to use the prepaid cards, such that the owners purchase cards and use them, the owners give their cards to their children or other people, or the owners hand them out as souvenirs or giveaways. Moreover, there is a possibility that foreign tourists may purchase prepaid cards and use them for payment.
However, prepaid cards using an IC card are very high cost because the IC card itself is high cost, and also personal information is recorded on the cards. Therefore, as for prepaid cards using an IC card, it is difficult to use in such a way for giving them to other people or handing them out as souvenirs or giveaways.
Moreover, in the present circumstance, a lot of different formats for an IC card are proposed. Under such circumstance that a lot of different formats of IC cards are used, the cards may not be usable in some shops or places, and therefore it causes the users inconvenience.
In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, an object of the invention is to provide a card settlement system that is available for giving cards to other people or distributing them as souvenirs or giveaways, for providing high security, and for providing low introductory cost for affiliate stores.